Wong Sio Chak admits loopholes in police internal monitoring

Secretary for Security Wong Sio Chak has admitted that loopholes exist in the security force’s internal monitoring mechanism.
The Commission Against Corruption (CCAC) recently revealed that a Judiciary Police (PJ) officer was suspected of accessing the immigration records of two people a number of times in 2019 for reasons of personal interest and without authorization from his superior. This comes after a local resident filed a report in person to the bureau, claiming that a PJ officer had illegally accessed his and his friend’s immigration records, allegedly constituting an abuse of office.
In response to the CCAC discovery, Wong said that Macau’s law allows the PJ department to check residents’ immigration records during the course of an investigation and that checking immigration records is common investigation method. However, Wong noted that police investigators are only allowed to check individuals’ immigration records for non-personal reasons.
According to Wong, the law also suggests that a person in charge of the department should review the footprint of records checks.
Wong pointed out that, in the past, one person in charge of police affairs was also found to have checked specific individuals’ immigration records and that this person was subjected to punishment.
“We once [identified a person-in-charge who had checked others’ immigration records] for personal purposes. At that time, the person was sacked and he was not the person in charge anymore,” said Wong, who assured that there is a mechanism for the police department to learn whether there is any misconduct in immigration record checking procedures.
Regarding this specific case, Wong believes that the incident was only revealed after the public report was made to the police authority. In his opinion, the incident shows that the internal monitoring mechanism of the police force is subject to a small amount of “loopholes.”
Wong also acknowledged that leaders of the security department must enhance monitoring measures and recognize the need to invest in science and technology to improve the monitoring mechanisms.
Meanwhile, the Secretary for Administration and Justice, André Cheong, sees the CCAC discovery as proof of the effectiveness of Macau laws.